Voltage
by KlynneL
Summary: Jason leaves for college and learns a new skill.


It wasn't my fault. I hadn't meant to do it. I didn't even know what happened that day, but I felt powerful, stronger than I had ever felt before. I felt I could do anything and everything, and the voice I heard inside told me I could, I should, and I would. I needed to become who I was, what I am.

My life was different from that day on. Little power surges helped me cope in situations that would normally overwhelm me. I was no longer weak, asthmatic Jason, the little nerd boy who sat in his daddy's office at the Daily Planet looking for ways to get into trouble just to get attention. I was stronger, healthier and getting more attention than I wanted. And I knew that my father wasn't whom I had been brought up to believe he was. He was a tall unassuming man who wore suits and glasses and stumbled over his words. Nobody ever noticed him, just like me, but everyone knew him.

Or thought they knew. I knew better, and I liked that I had the secret that everyone else wanted. My father wasn't just Clark Kent, and he definitely wasn't some nerd nobody noticed. Especially my mother. When they were in the vicinity of one another there was a charge in the air that I never experienced anywhere else. The way they looked at one another, spoke to each other, touched without even touching.

My dad, Richard, tried to explain it to me once, how when those two indomitable forces came together they were like high tension wires, the power just radiated from them, and everyone around could feel it. And they couldn't resist it. They say that Superman is powered by the sun; that isn't entirely true: he also draws his power from my mom. If it weren't for mom, I don't think he could continue to do what he does.

Dad left my mom shortly after Clark returned. He had always known that Mom was deeply in love with someone else, he had just never known who it was. He assumed it was Superman, but Mom would deny it, getting angry whenever it was brought up. When Clark Kent returned to the Daily Planet, Mom introduced Dad to Clark. Dad knew then that this was the man she was in love with. She got so flustered, so nervous, like a schoolgirl with a crush. She couldn't even think of what to say, so she rattled off some lame description of dad: who he was, what he did, what kind of movies he liked. She introduced Clark as "Clark."

Richard felt the charge between them that day, and anxiously took me home, leaving Mom to fend for herself. She picked up Chinese for us that night; they got eggrolls, I got peas, mom said I was allergic. That was the last normal night we had as a family.

A few days later I threw a piano, almost died on a sinking ship, and helped find Superman before he drowned. Superman fell from the sky that same day. Mom and I went to see him in the hospital, the day she finally told someone the truth, told him the truth.

I was excited to find out that I was Superman's son, that Clark Kent was my father. It explained so much, why I felt the way I did, could do the things I could do. I was finally able to understand what the voices inside me were saying. I was his son.

The week I spent on the farm was amazing. I learned so much those days, grew so much. Dad was excited with all the different things he learned about me as well. That I wanted to do so much, that I had so much potential, so much promise. Anything is possible in the eyes of a five-year-old, and when you add Kryptonian DNA to the mix even the improbable is possible.

With him, some of his powers grew with him, like his strength, and invulnerability. Others came in bursts, like his vision, and hearing. Those would overwhelm his other senses, short-circuiting his ability to even function at a basic level. For me the powers developed gradually, we'd almost overlook their arrival. They never appeared singularly, but all manifested together: all but flight.

I was about to give up on that one, as I had never even shown an inkling of flight. But that was before I met her: Adele.

I saw her my first day in college and I knew my life once again had changed.

I had picked a school as far from Metropolis as I could, opting for a school on the west coast. The school itself was small. The campus nestled in the mountains surrounding the Rogue Valley. Even the name sounded picturesque. There were vineyards, forests, mountains, and lakes. Just about any type of outdoor adventure was there, waiting for me to embrace. I just needed to get situated. Once I checked into my dorm, and got my stuff out of the Mini Cooper my mom bought for me as a joke I was off to explore the campus, then the surrounding community.

It was then I saw her. She was walking out of the Union, the sunlight glinting off her chocolate hair. Her beauty stunned me. The way she moved spoke of elegance and confidence. She walked across the quad to the English building and disappeared through the doors. Somehow, I knew as she passed me, I had found her. I felt that surge of power my parents let off, and if I didn't pay attention the whole school would know that Jason Kent wasn't just the son of two journalists in Metropolis.

Looking around to make sure that nobody would notice, I sped off up one of the hills surrounding the campus. Dad had taken me flying over the city when I decided this is where I wanted to attend. He pointed out some of the more interesting features, such as a huge monolith in the middle of nowhere. He called it Pilot rock, and I thought that it looked as good as anyplace to practice my latest ability, I just had to remember how to get there from here. Closing my eyes to try to picture its location, all I could see was her face, and the way her hair fell across her forehead. Suddenly I was hovering six feet off the ground.

It was time to call my dad. I wasn't going to try to figure out the physics of Kryptonian flight without him. And there was no way I was going to introduce myself to the girl who gave me flight without telling her who I was.

Reviews are appreciated.


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